Parliament Hears Motion Urging Ban on British Arms Sales to Israelis

February 20, 1969

LONDON (Feb. 19)

A motion calling for a ban on British arms sales to Israel was introduced in Parliament yesterday by Mrs. Margaret McKay, a Labor MP and anti-Zionist. The motion warned that the sale of British arms or tanks to Israel “would contradict the spirit of Great Britain’s sponsorship of the United Nations resolution of Nov. 22, 1967, would be injurious to British initiatives toward a Middle East political settlement and catastrophic to those wider United Kingdom-Arab trade interests so vital to Great Britain’s economic health.”

Foreign Secretary Michael Stewart refused to say whether such a sale would take place. He had been asked whether it would not prejudice Britain’s “position as arbitrators” in the Security Council. Mr. Stewart replied that the Government favored a general restriction on arms shipments to the Middle East.